ugg boots, made of sheeps skin, not cool. john, in illinois, my wife and i are taking care of our son's triplets. >> just park morning and they'll be asleep in no time. >> tuned in hoping to see bill karins hosting. >> frank thanks so much. apparently we're seeing other people. i like that. i'm very busy. clearly, we appreciate it. our friend in illinois, appreciate that kind e-mail. "morning joe" begins right now. our president, barack obama, took day or two off to go play golf in florida. i don't care, fine, go play golf, i don't care. played with a guy named tiger woods. this is our president playing golf this weekend.

what do you think? >> i thought it was funny. >> good morning, everyone. it is tuesday, february 19th. welcome to "morning joe." with us on set, we have msnbc and "time" magazine senior political analyst, mark halperin. >> hey, mark halperin, how you doing? >> national affairs editor for "new york" magazine and msnbc political analyst, john heilemann. in nashville, we have -- >> look at that! >> pulitzer prize winning historian and author, jon meach meacham. >> it's dark down there. >> it is dark.

>> shall we get right to the news? >> let's do it. >> there's a piece on rattner. >> sorkin, andrew sorkin. like aenaen -- an insider newsletter. >> none of us are quoted. >> i'm so tired of being an outsider, raging against the news. >> can we do news? >> yes, we can. >> msnbc news "morning joe." >> i ghosted this, man. >> let's move in. president obama will be joined by first responders at the white house this morning to deliver remarks on billions of dollars in automatic budget cuts set to kick in next friday. according to administration officials, the president will challenge republicans to make a quote simple choice between

protecting working americans or protecting tax loopholes. but the very public display rather than personal outreach is the type of approach republicans say is hampering opportunities for compromise on capitol hill. a new article from "politico" today says a number of top gop srpts who could help pass the president's agenda are surprised they still haven't heard from him. one example is senator mark kirk, although the illinois republican is a leading voice for new gun legislation following the newtown massacre, he and the president have never spoke.about it. one senate aide says the president's repeated calls for gun control during the speech didn't make it any easier for republicans like senator tom coburn, who are interested in fi finding common ground. on fiscal issues, senator rob portman of ohio says he's open to working with democrats but says his interaction with the administration is limited to

secretary treasury nominee, jack lew. senator marco rubio, who's been working on immigration reform was clearly frustrated when white house legislation on the issue was leaked before congress had its own version ready. republicans have never done that, by the way. a white house spokeswoman told "politico," the entire obama administration is in regular contact with members of congress and their staffs an the president has been very clear he is happy to work with any who wants to build the middle class. >> what do you think? >> i think some of it is fair and some of it is just piling on and the president could too a lot of good-bye walking over to capitol hill and saying, okay, let's go. >> he doesn't do that. why doesn't he do that at this point? >> they reach out, i think, more than the narrative says. they've invited people, they've been insulted, they've been lied to and i think there is a lack of trust and the question is how to rebuild that. >> again, we say it all the time but democrats complain as much

as republicans. i have a democrat i've been talking to an awful lot behind the scenes, along with republicans on some of this gun legislation, john heilemann says he's been in washington a while and he's never gotten a phone call from the president, whether it's on gun legislation or whether it's on a lot of other things he's been working with. you would think mark kirk, tom coburn, these republicans that are really out there on this piece of legislation, which is just vital for gun safety would be getting calls but he doesn't do that. he's not your usual president, is he? >> he contestant doesn't do it. not done it for the last four years and not going to change. there are times being able to levitate above the earth would be a useful skill. we have gravity. that gravity won't change. the president won't suddenly become bill clinton the next four years. wasn't the last four years and won't be the next four years. either things will get done

through more staff contact and cabinet secretaries and outreach and they won't get done and he won't change and become a different person. >> we're not asking him to call bill clinton. we have legislation in the balance. >> we've been talking about it this for four years. it's not going to change, not in his character. he doesn't like to do it, won't start doing it. >> after the president got elected again, made the joke my daughters don't really want to see me that much any more so i will have more time to call. >> there's still espn, there's still the duce. >> exactly. i'm flummoxed, i really am, why he can't pick up the phone, especially republicans on gun legislation, sticking their necks out and crossing the nra. doesn't look like he will change. >> the legislative theory of the case is maybe joe biden and jack

mcdonagh, will produce overwh m overwhelming majorities in the senate for these projects and the pressure will be on the house for the house to pass tax cuts and they don't think they need the president to get those compromises either through regular order in the committees or big votes on the floor. >> let's go to pulitzer prize winning historian, jon meacham. can you -- i just can't think of a parallel. i'm sure calvin coolidge was remote. i really can't think of a parallel of a property obstinate of refusal to talk to republicans or democrats on the hill to move legislation along. >> the great coolidge story that this lady said, mr. president, i have a bet i can get you to say three words and he said, you

lose. the coolidge humor is always good to start with. >> that's good. good morning nashville at seven after the hour. >> there were two words. just one short. george will wrote another coolidge joke, a little better. >> that's a good one. >> coolidge and his wife, jon, since you opened the door, i will plow through it. coolidge and his wife, while they were president, were tour a chicken plant. >> as one does. >> as one does and the tour guide told mrs. coolidge that chickens copy late as much as -- >> the rooster. >> the rooster 24 times a day. >> and we got the word "copy lated" in. >> all day long. >> mrs. coolidge said, could you tell that to the president. the tour guide told that to the president and the president said, do they do that all with one chicken?

the tour guide said no, 24 different chickens. he said, could you please tell that to mrs. coolidge. >> that's funny. >> i see your coolidge joke and i raise you one. thank you, george will, put that in his column this weekend. >> your coolidge joke is better. >> the analogy comes to mind he had two democratic houses is president carter, who was not the most popular guy in town, tip o'neill used to express frustration about, i want to help this guy but he won't let me help him. i think there's that odd strain in american politics of introverts going into an extraverted business. it's nixon and i think president obama. i think carter is a good example of that. i think john heilemann is exactly right. it would be nice to levitate and we're not going to. >> it won't happen.

>> it has to be on the margins. there are moderate republicans who want to help him and some red state democrats that want to help. it's self-defeating but i don't think it will change. >> let's go to jim van dehei. right now, it's not just senate democrats and republicans expressing frustration, you have the press up in arms and other "politico" stories yesterday up in arms feel like they're being shut out. >> a lot of them. we had four or five in the piece that went on the record with very critical comments on the white house. they're saying it is different this time. the obama white house is taking this predictive set of tools for media manipulation whether controlling where you're going or who you're talking to or limiting access the president has and with his staff and then putting it on steroids, using social media and taking their own photos and what gets

released to the mass. the combination of this has made this white house much more controlling of his image than even george bush, who was accused of freezing out the press. >> for republicans complaining president obama is not working with them. how much of this goes back to the early days of his presidency where he feels he did reach out on stimulus and health care and didn't get anything back and said, these people aren't going to work with me, forget it. did he do into off feice thinki these people aren't going work with me? >> i think a little bit of both. this isn't the most gregarious president, doesn't like to kick it around with senators and talk about policy. and he thinks it's not worth his energy. what's different here is you put the house and senate in different categories. it is almost impossible to work with house republicans.

i don't think there's a deal to be had on much issues with them. you think about the senate and rubio on immigration or portman on budget issues or kirk even on gun issues, there are republicans who want to get things done in the senate i do think if the president either did build now or had built a relationship with, it would make it a lot easier for him to get something out of the senate that would isolate house republicans. strategically, it would be in his interest to have some of those relationships. they don't exist and there's a level of it's awkward now because we haven't talked four or five years. why would we start now? you get to moments like this, makes it harder to get deals he wants to get done particularly on guns and immigration. >> what's so fascinating about the president. i know you spent one-on-one time with him, as have we. he's a very likable guy, unlike, let's say coolidge or nixon or carter, who were not intere

interested -- who at times socially awkward. this president is a very likable charming guy. >> it leads you to wonder. >> it's not that he couldn't use his personality and his likability and his skills because he has such a winning personality one-on-one, it's just that he seems to refuse to. that's what makes it so fascinating because most presidents will use every weapon at their disposal. but he is not using, i think, one of his -- one of his more effective weapons politically. >> i think that's right. i will say, when i spent time with calvin coolidge, i thought there was an unusual kind of gei geist-like charm. >> unusual geist like charm. >> very geist-like. i was just talking to a very successful southern politician over the weekend about this issue.

this politician made the point that he is not been around someone except the president who so clearly would have preferred to be respected than to be liked, which i thought was a really astute comment. i think that when you put that frame around it, there is something that tells you that begins to explain the behavior. he believes in his ideas, understandably. he now has the wind of a re-election and he feels vindicated and he does feel, to go back to what we're saying a second ago, that he did reach out, it wasn't very effective. some people wouldn't return his phone calls. so why put himself in that position again. this idea he would prefer to be respected than to be liked is an insight worth thinking about. >> mika, one of his very close friends and people that worked with him some time expressed

frustration that he was more interested in being right than doing the deal. unlike most politicians go into it this is my world view and they have ha different world view, let's try to meet somewhere in the middle the frustration over the first four years is he's obsessed with convincing somebody else he's righ right and not as obsessed getting the deal. >> my point of view some of the things he's arguing are are so basic having said that, you're right, the deal gets done by giving a little and getting a little. nobody being entirely happy but getting something done. that hasn't happened and you do have to look to the white house and the president as to why that's not happened. it seems to me that both sides, if they want people to stop mocking washington and thinking washington can't get anything done and losing respect in

what's going on in washington, they all need to press the reset button and meet. >> this comes with the background of guns, obviously something that's in the forefront certainly of my mind but also sequestration, where you have this train wreck coming. the president went off golfing and republicans scattered in the breeze and went off on vacation. we have some vital services that are going to be slashed with a meat ax instead of having a ration rational sane approach to cutting. >> i actually think it's a little bit different where you have this point he wants to convince people he's right. it's not quite that. that would have involved sitting down with people and trying to argue with them and try to get them to see your point of view. he seems to have an attitude, people should do things on the merits and figure out what the right course is and he does things in his mind, he figures out what he thinks the merits ofs the case is and makes a

decision, not because somebody strong armed him and came to this conclusion in a logical fashion. he seem as to think people will get to the same place he does and see the right course of action and come together on the merits. kind of on the merits of the case that will be self-evident. there's an intellectual purity to it that's not like most politicians. >> actually, that's what this person was saying, more fi philosopher king. he thinks he's a philosopher. seriously, so unwed from the realities of washington d.c. which again there are things to respect about this unless you want a properly functioning washington. >> tell me about the rattles of washington d.c. where a republican leader doesn't go to state dinners when he's invited, where a republican leader maybe goes to one but doesn't shake the president's hand. tell me about those realities and tell me how he's supposed to function in that reality. that has happened, few.

not just this guy is not calling any, he has been treated with great disrespect and even rudeness on the other side. >> george w. bush was insulted regularly by ted kennedy and george w. bush continued a relationship with ted kennedy. we impeached bill clinton and bill clinton continued to reach out to us. >> you don't think there's a new level of low here? >> no, absolutely not. keep hearing that and so sick of hearing that from people not around washington in 1993 and 1994 and 1995 and 1996, i have yet to sit here, maybe you have, mark halperin. >> fair. >> you were around, did you know of major conservative leaders that put out videotapes suggesting that barack obama was a murderer. people forget the level of hatred that went mainstream when bill clinton was president. i could come up with a lot of great examples when george w. bush was president. let's just stay with the

democratic case right now. the crap that was put out about bill and hillary clinton from 1993 to 1996, '97, '98, i think makes what this president has had to endure, which has been ugly, like what george w. bush had to endure was ugly, look almost like child play. this collective amnesia about the clinton wars is absolutely staggering. people have no memory at all, this is the first time a president has been treated badly. no, we treated bill clinton worse. >> impeachment trumps everything else. we're in a different media environment and things are generally worse. bill clinton fought through that. i don't mean to slight the other senators. two people in the political

story, rob portman and alexander, two guys that would work well. they're not people who d disrespected the president, that i know of. i think -- i think there's an opportunity on every issue the president cares about to work with those two guys and others and corker and others, senator corker and others, in a way that he didn't do in the first term. but it is going to require having the trust and personal relationships that don't exist. it is true, as jim said, it's a little awkward to start them now but it is in the beginning of a second term. if those guys got calls from the president, i don't think they'd react badly to it, i think quite the opposite. >> sequestration is a really good example here. the president today is going to go out and once again say i want a mix of tax increases and spending cuts to replace sequestration. he knows looking at this congress there he's zero percent chance republicans will agree to that. you could make the argument your

energy would be better spent getting on the phone with those senators who want to replace sequestration with something that can get through congress but that doesn't happen and doesn't happen for all the reasons you just talked about. the president doesn't think republicans are on the level and doesn't think they will engage in a serious negotiations so he blows them off. republicans feel i've been blown off four years so whatever, i won't try to get into talks about sequestration so what do we get? you will get sequestration on things that should be undone. >> there's a machiavellian reason to call republicans. set them up. be the most reasonable guy in washington. >> show up, prepare. >> be mournful. i want to make this work. >> who was good at that? >> for the american people. why in the world won't they just meet me halfway? >> bill clinton. >> sounds like someone else. president clinton. >> it makes me sad. it works dar sworks --

>> it hurts. >> it hurts. i just want to be reasonable here. >> and i want to ask the historian about the facts of president obama and put them in a different context. we know going back to the times you study, ancient history, it's uglier than now but what about more recent history and people who say this has been more difficult for president obama than any president previous. >> mark makes the right point. the media environment has changed at least the pace with which attacks and the smallest of differences get magnified. having everything moving so constantly, there is no cycle, only a treadmill. so you have something where there's a constant war going on. the battle is always going on, you don't even get to wait for 6:30, which is the reagan example.

the halcion era of the 1980s, people thought reagan's opponents thought he was a dott dottering king, that was a fer ro shot battle, the great story -- >> are you about to tell about the coolidge joke? >> i was going to move to harding. >> harding. wow! >> so, go ahead. >> richard vinegary story. how about that? the great lesley stahl story, she does a piece in 1984 how vacuous reagan's re-election campaign is and shows all the pictures of reagan with flags and monks in america and diever calls her up and thanks her. she says, mike, didn't you listen to the piece? he says, it doesn't matter, people will remember what they saw. is there a level of conflict there. what i think is different is that it's much more intimate in

that the partisan debates and arguments between people come into people's phones and come into their pockets. there's no time to breathe. i do think that has a human magnifying effect on the velocity of what's going on. >> mika, despite that fact, since we've had cable news at primetime, heat and talk radio shows, isn't it stunning the three presidents in this era, this ugliest of political years, they've all been re-elected. clinton, bush and obama. which shows how irrelevant at the end of the day they are to the swing voters. i actually think all the hatred, with swing voters actually helps the sitting president. >> all right. jim vandehei, thank you very much. still ahead on "morning joe," former secretary of state, madeleine albright and frank bruni and "hardball's" chris

matthews and the israeli ambassador to the u.s., michael oren, with the president's upcoming trip to israel. after a very cold stretch, new england is warming up. we will watch the clouds and rain moving in. you don't need the haveneaviest all coats today but you need an uchl brel la. rain in new england southward to new england and baltimore areas and watching rain from buffalo to cleveland to pittsburgh and just about done in south atlanta and you will get rain in your morning rush hour and mobile and pensacola and panama city. the only snowy weather is to the north behind the storm, breaking out from green bay, oshkosh to chicago. and behind that, it is extremely cold this morning from minneapolis through north

dakota. that's a minus 45 windchill in north dakota this morning. that is not fun by any's standards. the next significant storm will arrive on the west coast, as we arrive throughout the day today and move to the middle of the country, especially wednesday night and thursday, potential m major winter storm in kansas and illinois and missouri and iowa. we leave you with a nice sunrise shot there, beautiful red hues. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. mine was earned in djibouti, africa, 2004. the battle of bataan, 1942. [ all ] fort benning, georgia, in 1999. [ male announcer ] usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation because it offers a superior level of protection and because usaa's commitment to serve the military, veterans, and their families

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number 6. >> damn, girl, you make mary todd look like yulysses s. gran. >> easy, easy. number 5. >> does the 5 dollar bill make me look fat? >> number 4. >> wow, i thought my clothing was out-dated. >> the number one thing you don't want to hear from a guy dressed as abraham lincoln. >> hey, jass, you going to thank me for the dayoff? >> pretty good. >> time to look at the morning papers. we'll start with the "wall street journal." according to aaa, gas prices have jumped 43 cents over the past month putting the national average at $3.73. in fact, fuel prices have climbed for 32 straight days. experts blame an increase in demand and several refineries

shutting down as two of the contributing factors. the "new york times," a computer security firm says there's little doubt a unity within the chinese army is behind a series os of hacking attacks in the united states. the unit is increasing its focus on u.s. infrastructure including power grids, gas lines and waterworks. officials at the chinese embassy are refuting that claim. at the "new york times" in a move aimed at shaking up wall street, the justice department is aimed at a strategy to take on big banks and prevent another crisis hitting the u.s. economy and focus on pursuing guilty pleas for those who break the law instead of settling for fines and reforms. the lawyers say they're already making changes to their defense strategies. the washingt"washington pos united arab emirates spreading

gifts throughout the world. it gave 5 million dollars to build a neonative intensive care hospital in joplin, missouri devastated two years ago. they also donated $1 million to buy laptop computers for the town's students in joplin, among several gifts given by the uae, a country that works to raise its profile as a pro-western country. >> what they've been doing in joplin is amazing. and mississippi has officially ratified the 13th amendment that abolishes slavery. >> that must have been a heck of a clerical error. what's the luck, seriously, that the clerical error would prevent them from ratifying the 13th amendment, could have been the 23rd. >> they ratified it and forget

to send it. >> it was passed in 1864 and not formally ratified by mississippi until 1995 making it the last state to do so. the error was apparently noticed by a pair of mississippians looking into the state's past after seeing the film "lincoln." >> it's 2013. officially ratified. >> the point is it wasn't officially ratified until 1995, the real story, in 1995, hey, maybe we should do this. >> they were busy until then. >> this story keeps getting worse. olympic sprint er oscar pistoris back in court charged with the murder of his former girlfriend, reeva steencamp. he put on his prosthetic legs and walked to his bathroom and shot her through his locked door in south africa. >> on the back page of the

"boston globe." more women become bread winners and the article looks at a huge jump, the best increase in nearly a quarter century in 2008 and 2009. working wives now account for 47% of household earnings up from 38% in 1988, while husband's contributions have dropped. the piece goes on to talk about why it's important women are paid more and more fairly because they are often the bred winners. >> that trend will only continue. >> absolutely. willie, what's coming up? >> a little sports, josh hamilton signed a contract with the l.a. angels in the off-season and now talking about the former fans of his team calling them spoiled and not really fans of baseball. >> that is really classy.

an ok guy that watched a pop fl fall at his feet, this guy is a punk. >> he's been given a second chance. [ shapiro ] at legalzoom, you can take care of virtually all your important legal matters in just minutes. protect your family... and launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. and launch your dreams. a hybrid? most are just no fun to drive.

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welcome back to "morning joe." time for sports where lakers owner dr. jerry burkes srksbuss

of cancer. he bought the team in 1979 and brought in greats like magic, kobe and shaq to southern california over the years. the lakers were the winningest franchise during buss's 34 years at the helm and inducted into the basketball hall of fame and he died at the age of 80. when he bought the lakers in 1979, the nba was the third sport. if we were lucky, the games were on tape delay. he put them on basic cable and invented naming rights for the arena and brought that glam and brought celebrities out for the game and was a celebrity himself and helped shape modern basketball as much as anybody. >> growing up in l.a., he was the consummate showman, marketer, media mogul and the most person he brought was phil

jackson, not a superstar player and enshrined jackson as the great -- although he had great results in chicago it exalted him as a select coach in a way they had not been before. >> you can see in pictures, hollywood celebrity, how big an influence dr. buss had. he died at the age of 80. in college hoops, berkeley, california. head coach mike montgomery will not be suspended from the pac-12 for shoving his own player during the game. he won't face suspension for shoving allen crab in the press. after initially down playing the incident, he apologized yesterday saying he made a mistake, trying to fire up his star player. crab had to be restrained after being shoved. he said they had no hard

feelings and he scored 24 point in this game to help cal to a victory. opening day, nearly a month away. angels josh hamilton is settling in with his new team and quakely blew off the fans of his old one. he signed a 25 million dollars deal in the off-season and said yesterday the fans in the dallas-fort worth area, quote, there are true baseball fans in texas but not a true baseball town. they are supportive but also got a little spoiled at the same time pretty quickly. >> a guy making how much money? >> $125 million. >> he can't run after a pop fly ball against the as. >> with the division on the line. >> with the hole season on the line. this guy is such a punk. you're right. it was the rangers that gave this guy a second chance. >> the rangers and their fans. not has the wh not -- that's what i meant, their fans. their fans embraced him.

>> what he was saying it's a football town, they love the dallas cowboys more than rangers. as the manager of the team pointed out, 3.5 million fans at their baseball facility last year. clearly, they like their baseball. >> calling them spoiled, how many world series has this spoiled franchise won? that would be none. josh hamilton, what a punk. coming up next, does president obama have too much power when it comes to drone strikes. the president of for ren relations, richard haass, thinks so.

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>> that's pretty. >> i think i have a dress like that. >> going to show the best sunrise -- do you really think that's the best? >> that's pretty. >> beautiful. >> 45 minutes past the hour. >> don't blow past this moment. >> top five. >> it has to at least be top five. look at the cars going into work. >> if you're listening to xm sirius right now. >> it is so great. >> you don't think that's unbelievable? >> i think it plays really well. willie will explain this to all of you in xm sirius land. >> look at the colors. it is so nice it is getting light earlier. >> but at least you can start to see. >> april, of course, a lot of

times is another month away. at least you feel better. >> here with us now, the president of the council on foreign relations, richard haass, author of the forthcoming book, foreign policy begins at home, the case for putting america's house in order. can't wait to see that. we will read actually what you write in the "wall street journal" today. the president has too much latitude to order drone strikes, you go on to write. u.s. drone strikes must be consonant with smart foreign policy. this means the strike is only when it is near certainty the target is a highly dangerous terrorist that the strike is likely to succeed and that collateral damage will be minimal and there is no viable alternative. such considerations should rule out signature strikes which target people who are behaving

in ways that resemble how terrori terrorists tend to behave. the standards i am arguing for here would lead to fewer drone strikes. there is a danger that policy can be too restrictive makeing impanel what should be difficult but the process that currently exists for authorizing drone attacks lacks sufficient controls especially when the targets are u.s. citizens. >> we spent too much time twisting ourselves in knots saying the terrorists are about to attack the so-called imminent standard, honest answers we never know. we don't know when terrorists are about to strike. we have to have a whole different set of criteria. the department of justice memorandum is really shoddy work. we should do better things in our government and we have to be smart. we have to ask ourselves, are the likely gains going out weigh the costs. the whole idea is to discourage people from becoming terrorists,

making a career choice and getting local governments to become our partners. before we shoot these things off, are we going to alienate more young men to become terrorists and ailient the governme governments that produce terrorism. we have to be smart and more thoughtful into what wore doing. >> jon meachem. >> dr. haass, you acknowledge there should be some role for this. is this a powell doctrine for drone strikes in a way? >> first of all, you're exactly right. you don't want to make it impossible, jon. you want to make it difficult. we want to ask ourselves really the same question you ask yourself before you do anything else in foreign policy are the li likely benefits going to out-weigh the likely cost. does it make sense to do this opposed to capturing them, let

them be and letting the local government do something opposed to sending in a special forces team? you have to go through an analytical framework and cost-benefit analysis and seems to me we've been quick on the tricker because it's safe and easy to do compared to everything else. we don't want to create a world, quite honestly where drone strikes become common place. you have to think what we do and how we do it. what kind of message does that send around the world to other governments. we don't want to make this casual. we have to make it doable but exceptional. >> richard, if you, i guess discreetly is the word, for more sparingly or smartly, are drone strikes an effective tool disrupting and discouraging terrorists. the argument from the white house is, yes, we've taken some extreme measures, al qaeda is dispersed around the world and breaking up, they're on the run.

if we use them right, is it a good approach against terrorism? >> absolutely. it's an important weapon in the toolbox and why you don't want to ban them or make them impossible. you want to be smart in how you use them. sometimes drones are the best thing to do and sometimes not. we have to be a little more discriminating thinking through and more publicly discriminating. it's important to send the message to american citizens and other governments, when we shoot a drone, it really does make sense, it was the least bad course of action available to the united states. it makes it's easier then for the host countries we're trying to get to partner with us to justify continuing to work with us. >> this story has been retold in america since the beginning of the republic, we are faced with a new threat from abroad, we respond and usually we respond aggressive aggressively, sometimes ov

overaggressively and we have to pull back over time. the bush administration was taught that lesson and looks like now the obama administration is being taught that lesson. >> i think so. i wonder richard's reaction to this, to some extent, perhaps president obama's surprise if not vice president biden's there's been an enormous overlap in the anti-terrorism policies between the bush-cheney administration and obama-biden administration and i'm wondering what the debates inside and what the current vice president might think about the drone policy? >> the vice president has been an advocate of the so-called light footprint. drones have become popular opposed to doing new iraqis and afghanistan, seen as the least alternative to going in with boots on the ground and heavy footprints. once you put aside the debate you say the vice president has been right about and won, once you decide we will go light

rather than heavy, then i think you start a new debate, what's the proper mix of drones and special forces and simply letting them be. the answer can't be on every occasion we shoot drones unless we're confident the target is all that important and we're all that likely to get them. >> does it surprise you the administration has gone this far? >> it doesn't because i think after iraq and afghanistan the whole idea was to pull back american involvement on a large scale overseas, this looked to be a relatively cheap and easy -- i don't really like using those words -- clearly a more economical alternative, so this was consistent pulling back from large came heavy footprint commitments. it doesn't surprise me. almost like regulatory policy, sometimes you go too far. i think the answer now is not to

stop it but dial it back. >> thank you so etmuch. coming up, senator ted crews is called out of line for his comments about chuck hagel. are his antics doing more harm than good to the republican party? we'll be right back. as your life and career change, fidelity is there for your personal economy, helping you readjust your retirement plan along the way. rethink how you're invested. and refocus as your career moves forward. wherever you are today, a fidelity ira has a wide range of investment choices to help you fine-tune your personal economy. call today and we'll make it easy to move that old 401(k) to a fidelity no-fee ira.

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washington. wake up, everyone! welcome back to "morning joe." >> i feel sorry for jon meachem in nashville. they must be having an eclipse. >> he's having dark thoughts, dark historic thoughts. joining the table, columnist, frank bruni. >> from washington, columnist for the "washington post" and msnbc political analyst, eugene robinson. good to have you on board this morning. >> you love frank's column with cruz. he's moved onto the pope but you want to stay with cruz. >> sure. i'll read it. all right. i will do it again because it's so good. i'm reading it. i want to. yes. when the soviets like john mccain tells you you belch too much, soak and spew too much fire, you know you've got a problem. >> she likes it. that's a bad day. that's a bad day. >> this is not painful for her.

>> like three, four days later, she's still laughing. >> when someone says something about you, that's a bad day. ted cruz, a republican freshman in the senate out front and center in his republicans' efforts to josh chuck hagel has a problem. he's an honoree piece of work, just six weeks from arrival, he's already known for nay saying and his nitpicking and his itch to upbraid lawmakers who are vastly senior to him who have sacrificed more than he has and who deserve a measure of respect. or at least courtesy that isn't his me kirks er. he was head of the harvard debate team. >> princeton or harvard. >> a very bright guy. >> a little too big for his britches.

>> people that knew him before said you would like him. >> he has been kicking shins, being comparely rude and i guess maybe it's all a marketing ploy to raise the most money among conservatives nationwide. >> it's getting him a lot of attention. he is in the news more than anybody else. i'm not sure it's a good long term strategy for the republican party or not a good long term strategy for him. this may play to the audience in texas. beyond texas, i don't know this plays so well. >> i don't know. the problem for texas and ted cruz and his style of politics is texas is changing. six years from now, when he runs for re-election, if he runs for re-election, it will be a vastly different state, more purple. people forget not so long ago, texas was a democratic state, back and forth. do you think, like mark thinks, maybe there's a national play here? >> it was pointed out to me

yesterday he was born in canada. there's a problem -- i heard this argument yesterday thinking about the future. i think he's thinking about the future and putting his chips down on the tea party populous part of the part. i any hispanic in this part of the party will get a lot more attention. he decided he wants to play on the tea party side of the fence rather than mainstream. the national thing is problematic is the fact he was born outside the country so he's not constitutionally -- >> some people think he could run because his mother was an american citizen when he was born. >> i hope that's true because it would vindicate what i said yesterday. >> we could annex canada. >> is that the official policy? >> and another person was born out of the country and ran for president. >> there you go. we're not talking about ted cruz

2016. >> talking about 2020. >> i have to say, what surprises me, here's a guy, obviously very very bright guy, lawyer. he knows what the constitution says, he knows what the second amendment says, knows the decision in 2008 that defined the parameters of the second amendment. >> he has the background. >> then he goes out and intentionally misstates what the second amendment and what heller and anthony scalia and what the conservative court said about what the second amendment was, deliberately does it knowing he's lying to his audience. >> he's playing an ideological game. he has very far ideological beliefs and will bend everything to fit them. i remember people from the 2000 george w. bush campaign. i know a lot of people that worked with him then and know people who went to law school with him.

i think his conservatism is genuine. this is not ginned up. what is odd you don't have to have the style he has. to be this 42-year-old whippersnapper, be one of three that votes against confirmation of john kerry and go in front of conservative audience and effectively dis-john kerry and others as military, is odd for someone who hasn't served. >> and that somehow he is an ally of iran. >> over the top. nobody is contesting his conservative positions aren't -- the substance of his positions aren't legitimate. he can debate them. that's fine. just the style of burning the village down. i don't like it. i don't care about ted cruz' political future and i do care about the political party right now and i don't think it's helpful. >> we've seen enough of these

and your party has endured enough especially during the primary process people who don't fit the modern day republican party as it could be if it wants to win. >> again, for kenconservatives there listening, why is scarborough worried about it? i'm worried about it because it's about branding, babies, it's about winning, i like to win elections. if you have a conservative that doesn't burn down the village stylistically, i prefer that than somebody that goes out of their way to offend swing voters that elect presidents. >> i agree. but the way he's coming on is not helpful to the party and i don't think it's helpful to him in the short and medium term. the way to get power and influence in the senate is not to come in and immediately get in the face of john mccain and senior senators like that,

because they have a ways of squashing whippersnappers. >> we're calling a 42-year-old a whippersnapper. secondly, ted cruz looks at barack obama, a guy that came in and from the day he got in the senate, he was bored. harry reid said, you don't like it here, you're bored here. why don't you run for president? >> he was considerably more politic about how he spent his short time in the senate. >> talking about barack obama's pathway he wasn't worried about that, he wasn't worried about building bridges, right? >> no, but he found a way to get along with his fellow senators as did hillary clinton who came along having greater ambitions, but careful to go step by step

and not to seem bigger for her britches than she wanted to seem. >> this is an odd way to last in washington. we'll see how he does. >> lindsey graham said you get respect in the senate if you can throw a punch and you have to show you can make a deal. ted cruz has thrown lots of punches and hasn't shown he can legislate or endure. this remains to be seen. and at the white house to deliver remarks on billions of dollars on automatic budget cuts set to kick in next friday. according to administration officials, the president will challenge republicans to make a quote simple choice between protecting working americans or protecting tax loopholes. the very public display rather than personal outreach is the type of approach republicans say is hampering opportunities for

compromise on capitol hill. a new article from "politico" today says a number of top gop senators who could help pass the president's agenda are surprised they still haven't heard from him. one example, senator mark kirk, the leading republican is a leader in new gun legislation following the massacre still hasn't heard from him. >> and the state of the union speech didn't make it's easier for senator tom coburn interested in finding common ground. on fiscal issues, senator rob portman of ohio says he's open to working with democrats but portman says his interaction with the administration is limited to treasury secretary jack lew. and senator marco rubio working on reform was clearly frustrated when the white house view on the issue was leaked before congress had its own version ready, a backup, guess.

he told "politico" quote the entire administration is in contact with the entire obama administration and their staffs and made it clear he's happy to work with any who wants to build the middle class and sequester to make a deal. i did hear from the white house they had invited republicans over any time to cut a deal. >> what do you think? people like mark kirk or come coburn haven't talked to the president about gun legislation, lamar alexander or kirk, guys who actually seem like they're ready to make deal. >> i think it's hard not to worry about there's something to this complaint as you hear this has been the problem since the beginning and even democrats say there's much less communication between capitol hill and the white house than they'd like there to be. the white house says it's unfair and working to change it. it has been so consistent over the last 4 1/2 years, there has

to be something to it. >> you almost wonder whether there's a change in strategy. the first term, attempt at deals that didn't go anywhere and now you have the president going over the head offense republicans trying to create a context he feels they have to fall in line. it's a risky way to govern because it's not direct governing or deal cutting so much as to create pressure. >> we asked a question whether the president made mistakes not reaching out to republicans enough. the response back we got was, no, but we have learned a valuable lesson. we will go out and campaign across america instead of dealing with the people across pennsylvania avenue. it seems to me, and he's president. he got re-elected, he can make that choice. it does seem to me he's decided he's going make a bet the democrats can take back the house in 2014 and maybe he can have at least two years of progress without having to deal

with the republican house. >> it's certainly true he hopes that's the case. this complaint from the republican senator to me is totally phony. what republican senator is going to be seen publicly making a deal with president obama? they don't want that. it's very clear they'll go way out of their way not to be seen to be cooperating with the white house because the party spent so much time and effort into demonizing him and making him into a socialist, they really don't want that. i think this is a bogus complaint, even given that the president is not the most back slapping kind of politician you've ever met, i don't think it's true that he never picks up the phone or never tries to contact republican senators, they don't want to be seen in public with him. >> there is something else going

on. you write in the "washington post" obama ruse. it's not that different from what rubio's group is talking about. but republicans can slam obama's plan as some sort of kenyan socialist inspired abdication of sovereignty. >> that's a good one. will laugh at that a week. >> they can blast the provisions on boarder security as laughable. they can describe the absence of a real plan for reforming the legal immigration process as slapdash or unserious or whatever they want to call it. so if the president really wants immigration reform to pass one of the most helpful things he could do is put out his own plan as decoy to draw republican fire while the senate works on bipartisan consensus, which looks suspiciously like what just happened. >> i said when rubio went on fox and other shows,it was a kabuki

dance. marco rubio's plan is a great plan, look what he's doing and ignored he's doing it at 95% of what the president is doing. i'm fine. whatever gets you through the night, awesome. but let us not pretend that one of these plans is much different than others because it's just not. >> no, it's not. it's not much of a different. i thought it was very interesting the president and the white house is shock this plan leaked over the weekend, but if you look it a, there are little bills and pieces missing. issues nod dealt with, that seem to go far. there seems to be a target republicans can denounce and then say, well, look, marco's plan is so much better and we brought the president back to moderation with marco's proposals and we can go forward

with this, it gives them cover because, again, the last thing they want to do is be seen agreeing with the president even though they basically do agree with the president because even if that gets 8 the senate, that kills it in the house. >> i thought this was a healthy sign yesterday. frank has covered this stuff a long time. when i saw this yesterday, marco rubio will be criticized attacking barack obama on immigration until the moment he signs it in the oval office and then brothers in arms. >> who will ultimately get credit, they aren't that different, it's who comes away from this, look what we accomplished. >> rubio cannot -- he has a balancing act. he cannot have people on his right think he's aligned with the president. as soon as he does that his plan is doa and until he is standing

in the oval office together. >> many people would understand if marco rubio was seen as an ally of barack obama at this stage, it never gets through the house. >> that explains the response to the state of the union. he could have said the president and i agree on this and he chose not to. >> that would be very perilous. >> i think he will be laughing. >> that's so good. >> all right. your new column online at nytimes.come. eugene robinson, thanks. your new piece online as well. still ahead, former secretary of state madeleine albright and chris matthews and chuck todd. president obama makes his first trip to israel next month since taking office. how important will that be the public relations? israeli ambassador michael oren

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you're looking at a missile on its way. you kacan't see the hamas rocke it's going after. watch how the missile will adjust its course to get close to the hamas rocket and blow it up. >> do you think that people in televiv and esskel lon feel saver today than six months ago? >> by far. >> a clip from 60 minutes. that was a report from the iron dome, israel's cutting edge rocket. israel's ambassador to the u.s. with us now, am babassador mich oren, thank you for being here. >> my pleasure. >> let's talk about the iron dome program we have seen over the past six months. it's been very successful,

hasn't it? >> i think it's been historically successful, the first anti-ballistic missile that took down 85% of rockets that would have taken down cities and the fact they couldn't hit our cities gave us time and space and saved palestinian lines and didn't have to work out a cease-fire with then secretary of state clinton. gave us time and space. if you're cities are being hit by mission mission -- missiles, the prime minister, you don't have time to act. we had soldiers ready to go into gaza and didn't have to go into gaza because the iron dome took away the threat to hit civilians. >> there could be instability in area and uncertainty in egypt and unrest in jordan. iron dome may not be relevant to those things. when israelis get up in the

morning and look at upheavals, they can say things are bad and getting worse. >> you've noticed. iron dome is a game changer, not ending. we're facing six or seven rockets in benghazi and syria has the largest arsenal in the world and looking carefully who is controlling that arsenal. the entire region is in turmoil. we have concerned and the united states allays some of concerns. at the end of the day we have to have our own security. >> a lot has been said about your relationship with the united states but lots said about the frayed relationship between this president and the prime minister. the proposal in the process of forming a new israeli government and presumably there will be a new government in israel. do you think it's possible there could be a reset to israel-u.s.

relations? >> i don't want to give too much credence to what you read, don't want to shock you everything you read is true. they have had 11 meetings and he has spoken to the president more than any foreign leader. i have been present during these meetings, open, sometimes very fun funny, had differences in settlement issues and we both call for immediate resumption of direct talks with the palestinians without pre-conditions. i think it will be a great visit. i'm very excited about it. >> how tenuous is assad's hold on power and besides chemical weapons, what is the danger to your country if assad is forced out of power? >> it's always too early to say good-bye to mr. assad. the people at the beginning of the syria civil war said he's going to be gone in two weeks,

two months, he has lifelines to keep himself in power. at the end of the day, we think he will go and the quicker the better. >> would the region be more stable if the united states stepped in a bit more aggressively and supplied weapons to assad's opponents? >> we're not going to get involved in making a policy recommendation to syria. we ourselves will not support the opposition. >> what about unnamed third countries, if unnamed third countries supplied weapons and support to assad's opponents, would that not make the region more stable? >> if unnamed countries supplied weapons to the wrong country, it would have a boomerang action. the longer this goes on the longer the islamist imprint will be there. we're aware there are dangers and whatever happens outside syria could bring in very unsavory people including people aligned with al qaeda but if he falls, if and when he falls, it

will be a huge blow to iran and huge blow to is bas he bol la a the end, a net game. >> what do you want to do to hasten his departure? >> cut off funds to him, put pressure on those supplying and keeping him in power. you can do that. the case of the russians, convince the russians to get on board to be more productive easing him out and assuring the emergence of a peaceful and democratic syria, not just in israel's interest, the interest of the entire region and the entire world. >> how close do you belie believe -- does israel believe iran is to having a nuclear weapon. >> the question isn't how close to getting a nuclear weapon, how close that we can prevent it. >> what's the bottom line?

>> it's a weaponization program, a fuse program, a missile program. one thing we can see is the enrichment cycle monitored by the un. we know where they are. we know at what point they have enough enriched uranium to have a nuclear weapon and they will go underground and we will no longer be able to see it and that is coming up early summer. >> that's what president netanyahu said. >> does israel need to move before this summer? >> israel needs to be in close cooperation with other allies. we see this just not as israel threat, national threat. if israel was completely uninvolved, the president said he would still view it as a threat against america. >> will israel still move along if they have to. >> israel has the right and duty to defend itself.

president obama said israel has that right and called it publicly. we hope we can reach a diplomatic solution. nobody has a greater stake than we do. we have the most skin in the game. we're there, talking about annihilating us. the sanctions have taken a huge chunk out of the economy but unfortunately haven't stopped the enrichment of the nuclear program. we hope it can be stopped? >> this wasn't mentioned during the president's message in the state of the union. where is israel going internally now? >> israel is focused on social issues, some not so different than issues facing this country. livable middle class wage, affordable housing for this country. we have a citizen's army. universal subscription,

exemptions for older orthodox jews and discussion about which exemptions have to be continued. we have to deal with peace between arabs in the world and we have a rambunctious democracy and coalition government and we're in the process of putting that coalition together now. prime minister netanyahu wants to primarily gather a coalition that can deal with all those issues at the same time. >> all right. thank you so much, mr. ambassador. thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> coming up next, former secretary of state madeleine ail bright and "gq" editor, michael haines and the mysterious circumstances surrounding his father's death.

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34 past the hour. president obama is face iing complaints from the press after they were barred from his golf outing with tiger woods

saturday. >> reporter: when fdr died in warm springs, georgia, the white house reporters were in washington. when having his heart attack after playing golf in december in 1955, the press corps was told it was indigestion. ronald reagan rode his horse without press coverage and president clinton had to be carried into the helicopter after tearing his tendon. the traveling press corps miles away. most understand the presidency is 24/7. presidents deserve time off between weekends at camp david. there's also something at work here historians say. be prepared to see a different barack obama in the second term compared to the first term willing to do things that reflect negatively on him like playing golf with a controversial figure like tiger words. >> it's true if he had played golf with tiger woods during the

campaign it might have been interpreted differently and anything was a source of controversy during the campaign. he feels more liberated to do something like that. >> reporter: the white house press channel only found out from the golf channel and on the air. >> seeing them drive off to the first tee, the president behind the wheel and tiger in the passenger's seat to play their first round of golf together and by all accounts they had a good time together. >> reporter: they're not ever able to see etch. the first president bush welcomed the press in kennebunkport and president bush called for a call against terror. >> i call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers. thank you. now watch this drive. >> reporter: and the president was eager to show quality time between john boehner and president clinton. >> this is not a trivial issue like a golf game. we don't care about his score,

what we care about is access to the president of the united states, whether democrat or republican. >> that was angela mitchell reporting. >> i will do this, you will do this. >> we will talk to chief house correspondent chuck todd, plus, we will take a pause at taking shots for him at his magazine's kate upton and rihanna obsession. they're always obsessed. today, "gq" deputy editor michael hanie brings us the real life story of his father's mysterious death and his own life journey. the topic of his own fas fating book. first, we turn to bill karins. >> thank you, mika. our next story is in the next two to three days andpossibly impact the east coast by sunday. on the west coast, san francisco and l.a. will get rain. this is the snowfall map.

the white is snow and the pink is more snow. it's possible new england especially southern new england could see its third snowstorm three weekends in a row. we had the two blizzards back to back. this shouldn't be as strong. right now, chicago to mouk key and the eastern seaboard and by 11:00, the rain is pushing in. and rain this morning in atlanta now clearing out and everyone will get much colder. look at the temperatures in the dakotas this morning. that this is windchill of minus 40. brutally cold around minneapolis, pushing into chicago, st. louis, kansas city, detroit. it will make it to the eastern

seaboard tonight to tomorrow morning. if you're traveling today, showers and storms on the east coast this afternoon and west coast as we go through the afternoon hours. the big snowstorm in the middle of the country is wednesday night and all day thursday. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. the patient, presented with a hairline fracture to the mandible and contusions to the metacarpus. what do you see? um, i see a duck.

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offset, both sons of newspaper men in chicago as well as my mother a newspaper woman. grew up in chicago, my father died when i was very young, he was 34. this personal story i heard but very universal about family and secrets. every family has secrets and inside those secrets are truths and if we can find those truth, that's what unites us. >> the story we've been told about how he died was not what i had always been led to believe and spent 10 years reporting this story. >> what did they tell you? how did your dad die? >> we were told he died by my uncle. he got off work late, the lobster shift, 2:00 in the morning and had a heart attack on the street. when i was in high school, this story never rang true to me. i searched the oh bit tuairies and said he died after visiting friends. having never met these friends, i went in search of them. >> what was it that made you

think the story wasn't quite right? why did you think there was something suspicious about your father dying of a heart attack. >> what was most suspicious, who were these friends? i find them very curious, never met anybo with him that night. our absence is never greater than our presence, when we lose someone whether we lost a boy or sibling or spouse, we always want to know what happened and what were their last moments like? >> as you teased it out were people reluctant to speak with you? >> many people were reluctant, especially his old newspaper pals. more of sense of honor protecting a son and my mother as well. we want the truth. no one really wants to be the messenger. we know what happens to messengers. these people were acting out of a code of honor one can understand. >> what can you tell us about what you discovered without -- >> without giving away.

willie, what would you say we can tell? >> it's very difficult not to give it away. >> it was a complex relationship, complicated story, perm very universal story as well because inside all these things are these truths. >> the story you got turned out not to be true? >> yes. the story my uncle devised, this cover story was a story he had written to protect us, a great last moment i see in the book the moment between the front page rare and information age when cops and reporters were still on the same side of the coin. >> was there any feeling you starred down this path wanted to know how your dad died, did you get to a point, i'm ability to blow up the myth of the story of my dad i had in my head all these years, you ever think about stopping, i don't want to know? >> there was also when i learn it, how do i go forward with this story? as i say in the book, there

comes a point in all our lives, the great question is who am i? in order to know who we are we have to go in our past sometimes and family's past and with where we came from and i tell my mother what i learned, a very powerful moment. >> your mother was also told this story? >> yes. >> but she didn't believe it, did she? did she believe he died of a heart attack? >> she did. she was 33 at the time. she had two boys in 1980. it was a different era. >> did she want to know the truth? >> when i told her i knew the truth, yeah. in this book, i went looking for my father but found my mother. >> how did your mother respond? >> she's very proud of the book. >> she's here. she's seated right over there. >> my goodness. >> that must have been very difficult when here she is believing one thing all these years and you can see she a's stopped and welled up. it was very difficult for her to

hear that. >> when you started out, did you conceive of it as a book from the beginning? >> i conceived it as the universality is. we long to search. our stories are intertwined with our parents stories, to know ourselves we have to know them. i need to solve this mystery. i believe there was a story here and the story became the journey and the journey became the book. >> are you glad you went on that journey at the end of it? >> sure. yeah. >> there are some things best left unknown. >> i used to think that, joe. ultimately i think there are secrets and inside those secrets are truths. we know in our own lives once that truth comes out, oh, now i have information and can go forward in my life. it's that fear of those things that holds us back and one of the things i talk about in the book. believe me, i had a great amount of fear going in search of this.

having come out the other side, i hope this book will inspire people to think about this and even having conversations. >> so many people don't want to pursue truths that are in their family and everybody's family has a truth that through the years, through the generations, people decide to bury. >> right. i got an e-mail from a man who read my book, the man is 75 years old, i realized my father, what my mother told me, that he died of a heart attack, he said i finally looked up the hospital record. he had been beaten to death and died in the hospital after five days. this was in the '40s and said, i think my father was beaten to death because he was gay back then. i can't ask any about it. i talked to my cousins and they say, we don't want to talk about that. i'm 75 and i still want to know that story. that's again this book -- my book connects those -- makes

people think about those conversations they want to have. >> after a decade of digging into the truth about your dad, how do you feel about him sitting here today? >> i feel like i see him as a man in full. i started this journey from looking at him from a son to father and now i see him man-to-man. i think that's the great -- when we take these journeys, that's the power of it. these people leave us but we never leave them behind and always carry them with us. joe, you lost your father. we think about these folks everyday, we always are wondering, how am i like them? how do they form me? whether you lose a spouse or someone, you're always looking to see what's left of them and how do i carry them forward. >> can you talk about this spectacular cover? >> this is done by a colleague of mine, taken of my parents the

year before they were married. the architect director at "gq." you can tell a book by its cover. >> your mother is here. >> she's come in. today is >> she's come in. >> that has to be exciting. so what does your mother sympathy be the you putting kate upton -- >> i need to talk to her. >> i'm sure she's concerned. >> it all loops back. >> it all loops back, i know. >> i just have attorneys, this is a beautifully written book. it's heart-breaking. i'm not just saying that because he's a friend. >> i can't wait to read it. wow. the book is "after visiting friends, a son's story." michael hainey, thank you. up next, mayor michael bloomberg tests the limits of the nra's influence. that story's next. we'll be right back. weight watchers online worked for us.

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this comes as mayor michael bloomberg's super pac prepares to spend millions of dollars in the special election to replace jesse jackson jr. in chicago. bloomberg may commit as much as $2 million to ads to defeat congresswoman dean halvorson, a pro--gun advocate who once enjoyed a top nra rating. in an editorial out today, the chicago tribune wrights in part this. bloomberg is not interested merely in influencing a particular race. his spending is also about demonstrating to candidates across the country that the nra is not the only group prepared to make an issue out of gun control in political campaigns. it's about proving that being associated with the nra can be a liability, not an asset. it's about creating a different political climate that could make sensible gun restrictions more achievable. >> and mark, there was a

development in the race yesterday. one of the democratic candidates dropped out, which actually consolidates power behind kelly, who is now in a good position to win this race. >> the mayor is using his vast resources to make a statement in this race. it's a democratic district and the one pro--gun democrat left in the race probably won't win although she was ahead. and if the mayor keeps her from winning through his spending, if he keeps her from winning, i think he's going to then try to take that example, go to other places in the country and say the nra money is not the only money that's at play. >> that's right. >> and by the way, michael bloomberg was successful. they selected a certain campaigns to target in 2012. they were successful. and if you are a moderate republican or a moderate democrat, god help those

moderate democrats that decide to go south and go with wayne lapierre on universal gun background checks. because he's going to throw money into those races and he will beat them. >> the mayor is a dangerous guy on this. he's a guy with many billions of dollars, committed to spending it, committed to this cause with a team of very sharp political operatives around him. tough political operatives. committed to the cause. they can change the equation on this in a lot of districts. >> i have to say also the thing that surprises me is how clear eyed they are. know though exactly what's possible, they know what is not possible. they're not around to waste time. they are targeting these races, and they're going to go after moderate republicans and moderate democrats. bloomberg, worth $24 billion,

will put in more, and he will win. so it changes the dynamics. >> and you really can't complain, if you're receiving support from the nra and you're riding on that, then you really can't accuse the mayor of buying anything because you're bought already. still ahead madeleine albright will be here. top republicans insist they're willing to work with the white house if president obama will only pick up the phone? that story's next when "morning joe" comes right back. revolutionizing an industry can be a tough act to follow, but at xerox we've embraced a new role. working behind the scenes to provide companies with services... like helping hr departments manage benefits and pensions for over 11 million employees. reducing document costs by up to 30%... and processing $421 billion dollars in accounts payables each year. helping thousands of companies simplify how work gets done. how's that for an encore?

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good morning. it's 8:00 on the east coast, 5:00 a.m. on the west coast. it is time to wake up, everyone as you take a live look at new york city. come on now. back with us on set, we have mark halperin and john heilemann, and in nashville, john meacham. >> let's go. what do we got going? >> president obama will be joined by first responders at the white house this morning to deliver remarks on billions of dollars in automatic budget cuts set to kick in next friday. according to the administration officials the president will challenge republicans to make a choice between protecting working americans or protecting tax loopholes. but the very. display rather than personal outreach is the type of approach that republicans say is hampering opportunities for compromise on capitol hill.

a new article from politico today says a number of top gop senators who could help pass the president's agenda are surprised they still haven't heard from him. one example is senator mark kirk. although the illinois republican is a leading voice for new june legislation following the newtown massacre, he and the president have never spoken about it. one senate aide said the president's repeated call for gun reform during the state of the union speech didn't make it easier for republicans like senator tom coburn who are interested in finding common ground. on fiscal issues, portman says his interaction with the administration is limited to treasury secretary nominee jack lew. and narrate marco rubio, who has been working on immigration reform, was clearly frustrated when white house legislation on the issue was leaked before congress had its own version ready. republicans have never done that, by the way.

a white house spokeswoman told politico, quote, the entire obama administration is in regular contact with members of congress and their staffs, and the president has been very clear he is happy to work with anyone who wants to build the middle class. >> what do you think? >> i think some of it's fair. i think some of it is just piling on, and i think the president could do a lot of good by just walking over to capitol hill and saying, okay, let's go. >> but he doesn't do that. why doesn't he do that at this point? >> they reach out i think more than the narrative says. they've invited people. they've been insulted. they've been lied to, and i think it's a lack of trust. and the question is how to rebuild that. >> we say it all the time, but democrats complain as much as republicans. i have a democrat i've been talking to an awful lot behind the scenes, along with republicans on some of this gun legislation who john heilemann says that he's been in washington a while and he's never gotten a phone call from

the president, whether it's on gun legislation or whether it's on a lot of other things he's been working with. and you would think kirk, tom coburn, these republicans who are really out there on this piece of legislation which is just violate for gun safety would be getting calls. but he doesn't do that. he's not your usual president, is he? >> he doesn't do. he's not done it for the last four years. there are times when being to levitate above the earth would be kind of a useful skill, but we have gravity. the president's not suddenly going to become bill clinton. so either things are going to get done through much more staff contact and through cabinet secretaries and other outreach. they're not going to get done because he's going to change and suddenly become a different person. >> we're not asking him to be bill clinton. we're asking him to pick up the phone. >> all i'm saying is we've been

talking about this for four years. he's not going to change. he's not going to start doing. >> so mark, the president said after he got elected again, he made the joke, my daughters don't really want to see me that much anymore, so i'm going to have time to call. he doesn't like doing it. >> there's still espn. >> exactly, exactly. i'm flummoxed. i really am as to why he can't pick up the phone, especially on these republicans that are helping on gun legislation that are sticking their necks way out, that are crossing the nra, but it doesn't look like he's going to change. >> the legislative theory of the case is joe biden, maybe mcdonough, are going to produce overwhelming majority in the senate for these legislative projects and that the pressure will then be on the house as it was on the deal on the bush tax cuts to not be the hold-outs and to pass things.

and they don't think they need the president to get those compromises, either through regular order in the committees or votes on the floor. >> let's go to putser prize winning historian john meacham. john, i just can't think of a parallel. i'm sure calvin coolidge was remote, but i really can't think of a parallel of a president who just is obstinate in his refusal to talk to democrats or republicans on the hill that could move legislation along. >> yeah. you know, the great coolidge story, the lady who came up to him and said, mr. president, i have a bet that i can get you to say three words, and he said, you lose. >> right. >> so the coolidge humor is always a good thing to start with. >> good morning, nashville. >> two words there, right? >> there were two words, yeah. just one short. george will wrote another coolidge joke which is a little

better. >> oh, that's a good one. >> coolidge and his wife, john, since you opened the door, i'm going to plow through it. coolidge and his wife, while they were president, were touring a chicken plant. >> as one does. >> as one does, and the tour guide told mrs. coolidge that chickens copulate. >> as much as roosters. >> 24 times a day. >> they do. >> and mrs. coolidge said, can you tell that to the president? and so the tour guide told that to the president. and the president said, but do they do that all with one chicken? and the tour guide said no, usually with 24 chickens. he said can you go tell that to mrs. coolidge? >> that's funny. >> thank you george will. he put that this weekend in his column on calvin coolidge. >> we digress.

>> your coolidge joke is better. you know, the analogy that comes to mind that he had two democratic houses is president carter who was not the most popular guy in town. they used to express frustration about i want to help this guy but he won't let me help him. so i think there's that odd strange in american politics of introverts going into an extroverted business. it's nixon and i think president obama. i think carter's a good example of that. and so i think john heilemann's exactly right. it'd be nice to levitate but we're not going to. he's going to have to be on the margins here. there are moderate republicans who want to help. it's self-defeating but i don't think it's going to change. >> jim vandahi, let's go to this politico editor, jim. >> there he is.

>> jim, right now it's not just senate republicans expressing frustration. another politico story out yesterday, up in arms, that they feel like they're being shut out. >> yeah, a lot of them, and i think we have four or five in the piece that went on the record with very critical comments of the white house, and they say it's different this time, that the obama white house is taking this sort of predictable set of tools that you have for media manipulation, whether it's controlling where you're going and who you're talking to or limiting access that the press has to the president and his staff. and then they're putting it on steroids, taking their own photos, controlling what gets released to the masses and they say that the combination of this has made this white house much more controlling of its image than even bush who was criticized a lot for freezing out the press. >> jim, on the piece about the republicans, how much of this goes back to the early days of

his presidency where he feels like he did reach out a little bit on stomach luis and healthcare and didn't get anything back and said, these people aren't going to work with me, forget it. did he go into office thinking i'm not going to work with these, or is this the result of experience he's had? >> i think a little bit of both. remember this isn't the most gregarious president we've had. he feels like it's just not worth his energy. but i think what's different here is to me you put the house and senate in different categories. this is almost impossible to work with the house republicans. i just don't think there's a deal to be had on most issues with them. but when you think about the senate and about rubio on immigration or portman or kirk on gun issues. there are republicans who want to get things done in the senate that i do think if the president either did build now or had

built a relationship with, it would make it a lot easier for him to get something out of the senate that would then isolate house republicans. so strategically it would be in his interest to have some of these relationships but they just don't exist and there's probably a level of it's just awkward now because they haven't talked for four or five years. so i think when you get to moments like this, it makes it harder to get deals that he wants to get done, particularly guns and immigration. >> john, i know you've spent some one-on-one time with the president, as have we. he's a very likable guy, unlike, let's say coolidge or nixon or carter, who were not interested or who were at times socially awkward. this president is a very likable, charming guy. >> which leads you to wonder. >> it's not that he couldn't use his personality and his likability and his skills, because he has such a winning

personality one-on-one. it's just that he seems to refuse to. and that's what makes it so fascinating because most presidents will use every weapon at their disposal, but he is not using, i think one of his more effective weapons politically. >> i think that's right. i think he -- although i will say, when i spent time with calvin coolidge, i thought there was a certain, an unusual charm. >> a quiet geist-like charm. >> it was very geist-like. one of the things, i was just talking to a very successful southern politician over the weekend about this issue, and this politician made the point that he'd not been around someone, except the president, who so clearly would have preferred to be respected than to be liked, which i thought was a really astute comment. and i think that when you put

that frame around it, there is something that tells you that it begins to explain the behavior. he believes in his ideas, understandably. he now has the wind of a re-election, and he feels vindicated, and he does feel, to go back to what we were saying a second ago, that he did reach out. it wasn't very effective. some people wouldn't return his phone calls, and so why put himself in that position again? >> still ahead on "morning joe," former u.s. secretary of state madeleine albright will join us here. what advice does she have for the new secretary of state john kerry? and up next, chuck todd joins us here on set along with chris matthews from washington. but first, bill karins. >> not so great. >> it's not. bill. >> well, good morning, everywhere. we have a very exciting period of weather coming your way. three or four winter storms, one on the california west coasts,

another in the great lakes. this is the beginning 6 our stormy pattern and it's cold in the northern planes. first things first, though, travel trouble, slippery, light know, milwaukee down to chicago. just a coating on the roads. and i was mentioning how cold it is. the windchill just went into the negative numbers in chicago. wlook the your friends up in north dakota. minus 42 is how it feels on your skin if you head out this morning. so this is bitterly cold down through the northern planes. for our friends in california waking up early today, it's going to rain, in l.a., looks like san francisco, the tail end of the rush hour towards the lunch hour is your timing. hasn't rained a lot in l.a. this winter. so east coast, just light rain showers. but we have the cold, the storm on the woes coast. those are going to combine into a pretty good sized snowstorm, for all our friends from

illinois, nebraska, iowa, that'll be wednesday night to thursday. it's going to be especially during the day on thursday. leave you with a shot of new york city. finally a little bit warmer. don't get used to it. much colder tomorrow. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. with the spark cash card from capital one... boris earns unlimited rewards for his small business.

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top ten things you don't want to hear from a guy dressed as abraham lincoln. number ten, how about you and i form a more perfect union?

>> number six. >> damn, girl, you make mary todd look like ulysses s. grant. >> easy. easy. number five. >> does the $5 bill make me look fat? >> number four. >> wow, i thought my clothing was outdated. >> and the number one thing you don't want to hear from a guy dressed as abraham lincoln. >> hey, jackass, you going to thank me for the day off? >> so funny. joining us is host of the "the daily rundown," chuck todd. and in washington, the host of msnbc's hardball and author of jack kennedy, elusive hero, criminal justice matthews jane's the conversation. >> you've got simpson-bowles on the show.

>> dancing, doing the shakedown. >> so what's going on with the president's debt commission obviously pushed to the side. we can't get sequester done in a meaningful way that doesn't put a meat ax to a lot of these discretionary programs. >> but let's go to simpson-bowles. they made it 3-1 cuts to revenue. how many republicans would sign onto that, they want revenue via tax reform, but how many republicans would sign onto that? i'm guessing it's a very small group of people. but then what they're asking for on social security and medicare is not far away from what the president asked for. this is a -- if the president doesn't embrace this, it's a political -- >> does the president have another chance to embrace it? >> how many more chances? i keep saying, do you know where

to find the simpson-bowles. you have to go to white house.gov. that's where it lives. look, this is another opportunity, especially because they're petitioning, 3-1, but they're pitching the balanced approach. they're pitching the president's plan. they won't say it. they want a few more cuts, a little more on medicare, deal with age requirements, but they're pitching. it doesn't feel -- the difference are hard to find. they embrace cpi, all that business. >> chris matthews, as i continue talking about how the republican party needs to be dragged back to relevance so they can once again win the white house, i always talk about the suburbs of philly. you know that area better than anybody. tell us, where do people in the suburbs of philly sit on the debt, on the deficit, on simpson-bowles, on sequester?

we know perot certainly ignited a movement in '92 but where are people in the suburbs of philly in 2013 on this irish? >> well, that's the reason they vote republican. not abortion or anything else. it's that issue concerning deficit spending by the democrats. suburbites are negative on that. that's why a lot left the city, to get away from the big city machines. they want it to be clean, they want it to be efficient, and if you feely responsible. that's why they're republicans. that's always been their winning ticket. and you and i know that's where they go to play their card, that card there. but i also think there's a fact of life we ought to look at. right now we're basically about 15%, 1 in $6 to pay for the federal government, and we're spending about $25, about a quarter of the g.d.p., so it's a huge differtial, we're not

taxing enough, that's if you believe the government's spending should be 20% of the gdp. >> chris, who is the transformational leader who says, okay, americans, we understand you like the republican idea of taxation, but you like the democratic idea of spending. >> that's the problem, joe. >> these two together. so who gives them that news that we can't continue on this course forever? >> the problem is it's almost like a kid going to both parents, daddy, can i have the car tonight? sure. mom, can i have some money? it's like they go to democrats for more spending and republicans for lower taxes and they both say sure, kids. they get it both ways. there's a question i always ask to conservatives, are you willing to pay for the government you believe in? in other words, strong defense, pay off our debts, things like

that, law and order, things like that. are you willing to do that at least? that's about 20%. all right let's raise taxes up to 20%. but neither side wants to reconcile. you've nailed it, neither side says i'm willing to live with 20%. nobody forces them to that. that's the problem. >> we were saying that 18, 19% of gdp feedback in the '90s. that number just keeps going higher and higher, 25 years from now. >> yeah, but i want to go back to, i think the other reason to stands in the way, because we're not far apart, right? when you look at it in grand scheme, you go, really, we couldn't get a bargain over a couple billion dollars, which isn't a lot of money in budget speak. with clinton and gingrich, the two of them sold compromise as a

victory. in this day and age, maybe it's that obama and boehner don't know how to sell compromise as victory or our press corp will never allow that to happen. instead we find the conservative who doesn't like it, the liberal who doesn't like it, and then it forces the two players to say, i won. >> and then we invite lindsey graham on the sunday show. chuck todd, is there another republican allowed to speak on a sunday other than lindsey graham. nobody wants to talk. >> he's the front man. >> mccain and licensed. >> it's a problem. >> i think there are fewer and fewer republicans that will go on non-fox shows. >> why is that? >> i think that the mythology of the big, bad nonconservative media has gotten into some offices and so that there's this fear of we can't do anything that's not -- and i feel like it's a mythology that now

younger staffers believe and it infuses these guys. they actually believe the spin that's out there, oh, my god, that's what the mainstream media does, anything to disrupt the conservative agenda. and so really only licensed, john mccain, you know, that's been my, i just fear that it's sort of like this whole, there's this whole sort of the mythology of that the media's out to get conservatives is believed among more and more actual staffers. >> so chuck and chris, take us through this gallup poll, the direction of the country. 72% are dissatisfied. >> plus or minus 20 points? sorry. >> 72% dissatisfied, and then look at it between the parties, 47% democrats and 9% of republicans are satisfied. >> so, chuck, you obviously make a very good point about gallup.

>> i'm sorry. >> how far off is that? >> my point is that they need to go through a very public, when you had a, when you clearly, you're doing the wrong methodology in some form or another. look at what romney's pollsters have done. exactly what went right, what went wrong, for some reason gallup won't do. >> what's nbc's track right now? >> we're not that high, i think 38% was the last track. >> chris matthews. >> i just want to say that the most important iconic picture of the last election, which is still the only election we have to draw on, is the governor christie and the president walking along the beach in new jersey. that's what the public wants to see, parties behaving like grown-ups, operating like citizens, not their parties. it is still the most powerful picture. joe, i think you get to it almost every day, which is what

they want. working together like grown-ups. like going to work in the morning. you got to get the job done. people know they have to do it. why don't they do it? i think that's the question. >> i said this past week, you always have these people on the far left or far right telling their congressmen or senators, you go to washington and give them hell, the more you act like ted cruz, they slap you on the back, that's the way to do it, don't be nice to those people. why don't they go over at work to the cubicle next to them and insult them and say your methodology is stupid, you hate america. it's insanity. >> okay, joe, you're a pro too and you've been in all these worlds of media. unlike so many people, you know both perspectives. how many people in your perspective, and you're a history buff.

how many successful demigogs have there been. i keep thinking, sure it's great, they'll jump up and down, and say great, i love you. five years later, demigogs gets you nowhere. >> hughey long. >> louisiana statehouse. >> he ran the country of louisiana for quite some time. >> he was a disaster. >> i think we're in a different place. >> huey long. >> i'm just telling you, you want the last successful demigog, it's huey long. >> the reason we keep bringing him up is obviously the republican party has a branding issue. we are in the 20s. i don't really think it's about as much the positions that we've taken as it is over the past four years calling the president

a racist, saying he hates all white people as glenn beck has done. having voices in conservativism sating he's not an american, that he was not born here. >> mark, is this your expression, obama derangement syndrome? who came up with that? there was clinton derangement syndrome, frankly, there was reagan derangement syndrome where there's, whatever it is, say it's 25, 30 percent of the opposition base that just has never believed in legitimate, you have liberals that never believed reagan intellectually was a legitimate president. never should have been in office. obviously there were people who felt bush never should have -- wasn't legitimate. so this -- it's funny to me that you look at the last three two-term presidents before this one, and there's a pattern here, and it's just like the opponents

get so caught up in their hatred of the president that they lose their way and each party did lose their way for a while. >> and chris matthews, i'm saying this more and more every day because for republicans who think they're doing their party a favor by being engaged in the democratic version of bush derangement syndrome, a couple of facts that since we've had this 24/7 media news culture, talk radio and everything else that's gone with it, the presidents that have been undermined from day one, bill clinton, george w. bush, barack obama, they all get re-elected. you would have to go back a long time to find three presidents -- >> i think the founding, almost all the way back to the founding. monroe. >> three presidents, and this is exhibit one, that the haters only end up turning off swing voters who say, yeah, i may not love the president but he's not

everything the opponents -- i need to say one other thing too, and i hate to give facts. i'm not making any suggestion other than -- >> you hate facts? >> no, i hate to give facts to defend a lot of people, but think about this, and i'm not blaming it on him, but just for conservatives that think they have to stay in their own little media world, since rush limbaugh went on the air and became a national figure, republicans have lost five out of the last six presidential elections in the popular vote. since fax news want on the air in 1996, republicans have lost four out of five. >> please keep doing what you're doing. >> let me finish. so when ronald reagan and richard nixon had to go up against a media culture that absolutely hated them, that despised them, that ran them

into the ground every night and there was no conservative outlet, they won 49 states. listen, i'm a conservative. i like conservative outlets to go to when i get frustrated looking at the mainstream media. but for people that think, chris, they have to stay in this little box, i've got bad news for you. it's not working. >> well, rush limbaugh's a great example, guys, because he's enormously successful. he makes a lot of money and he deserves it because he's a great showman. but he basically place to a very narrow cast of republicans, usually middle aged white men. i'm not knocking him, but that's never going to be 51% of the country. he knows who his market is, guys driving around, marketing salesmen in car, he tells them they're the greatest guys in the world because they're carrying the load in this country and those -- he plays to them. it's brill.

but it's not 51% of the country and that's why it disserves the republican party to listen to this guy for their guiding light. >> that's why i talk about the i-4 corridor, the suburbs of philadelphia, yes, these people help energize the republican base, but it's not enough to get you the 51% plus one that you need to win presidential elections. and at one point the republican party needs to start focusing on winning presidential elections. i've just stated some facts on the air here. >> it's going to be interesting at 12:01. >> there's certain websites that are going to go crazy and they're going to attack me and they're going to go crazy -- >> perhaps a talk radio show or two. >> 12:06. >> here's the point. they're going to do everything, they're going to do everything but reflect on the fact that since this media culture has been created that was supposed to give us a great balance to the liberal news media, we've lost five out of six elections

in the popular vote. republicans need to start focusing on winning. and i don't begrudge anyone who makes $30 million a year. but i would love republicans to start winning again. >> maybe candidates ought to not be so afraid of them when they see the impact. >> we need to discuss two words, herman cain. it's like stunning roger ails, is that good for the country. >> we're going to finish this conversation. rajjer ails figured it out, and before everybody else figured it out, and that's why he was going to chris christie, trying to ask him to run for president, because roger els figured out some people jumped the shark. if you reward people, like herman cain's got a biggerer, is that going to encourage, what

kind of presidential primary is that going to encourage? >> it's a cottage industry. >> chuck todd, we'll be watching your interview in just a few minutes. chris, thank you. coming up on "morning joe," former secretary of state madeleine albright joins the table, but first brian shactman joins us for business before the bell. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] citi turns 200 this year.

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it's time for business before the bell. cnbc's brian isn't that correctman. we have the secretary of state here, madeleine albright, you have ten seconds to tell us. >> market's up, 20 points from 14,000. officemax, office depot might merge. and curt shilling's bloody sock up for auction could fetch $100,000 for auction this saturday. >> that's pretty good. >> coming up, who do we have? >> we have former secretary of state madeleine albright who paved the way for people like hillary clinton in the state department. up next, in her own words, the story behind secretary albright's remarkable journey. you're watching "morning joe."

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oh, that's a good one. >> oh, my goodness. >> that might have to come with us on the air. here with us is former secretary of state, madeleine albright, her book, a remembrance of war, 1937 to 194 is now out in paperback. the empress of research. she was the empress of research. >> he labeled you the empress of research. >> because at that stage i was helping him on research for his book, power and principle, so i needed a title and that's it. >> so prague winner, this is a remarkable story. could you tell me how, obviously dr. brizinski's family leaving poland, shaped your life. can you explain? >> no question.

i was born in prague just before world war two, and when the nazis marched in, my father escaped with mother and me to england and i spent the war in england. and i think what makes me different from contemporaries, i actually lived through bombing. the part that i didn't know at that time. i did a lot of research for this book was about my own religious background. i was raised a catholic, married an episcopalian and found out i was judiciary. so this story is based on three levels. the inner story is my story, my parents' story. the second level is basically what happened during world war ii and the very complicated aspect of that and the third is probably the most difficult is the difficulty of making moral decisions. we all think everything's black and white but there's an awful lot of gray area. >> i've talked about this

before, your experience like colin powell's experience shaped be. he'd gone to vietnam and his virs instinct was stay out. we were talking about the ball k kins. you grew up in this most horrific of times and what you learned from that. sometimes you just got to go in. >> part of the thing that happened is we can say we didn't know what was happening during world war ii. when we were in office in the clinton administration, we did know what was going. and the british and french tired from world war i did not do anything. didn't care about people in far away places with unpronounceable names. and so i think that we do care. that's what we did in the balkins, and the question is what is the right thing to do? >> she's speaking about

czechoslovakia, reminds me of your uncle. >> i'd like to bring the issue of moral decisions to today, if we could, and ask you to weigh in on the president's use of drones and the debate that has now ensued. >> i think it's one of the most complicated and fascinating debates because one of the issues that actually came up during the balkins in kosovo, it was an air war and a lot of people said there's not moral, you should have boots on the ground, and i thought why should we get more people killed, when you can take care of the terrible things that are happening from the air? i do think that drones have been very effective in terms of getting rid of people that are bound and determined to attack us. but it has gotten to be a much more complicated issue and i think should be a public discussion about the appropriateness of them. >> talk about needing to go in, let's talk about syria, tens of thousands of civilians kills.

assad killing the elderly. should the united states be more aggressive? >> i think we haven't talked enough about what the united states is doing. we've given like $5 million of aid. we've been instrumental in getting the opposition groups together. >> but the killing still continues. is there anything we can do to stop it? >> i think that we need to be more persuasive with those like the russians, for instance, that i think are not being particularlily helpful and keep pushing on having the opposition be able to be at the table with anybody that will talk on the other side. i think there's a real question as to whether there are enough arms or not 37 i don't think there's a lack of arms. i think there's a lack of international pushing and assad will go. so it's a tough issue. very tough. >> we have a new secretary of state. i noted the other day you said that he would be a great one despite his gender.

what advice do you have for the new secretary kerry? >> well, i think that he is very, very well prepared to be secretary of state. i mean, he has traveled everywhere. he has done every single issue as chairman of the foreign relations committee. i think the best advice is to know that it is an essential job for the national security of the united states, that he has to state his views clearly, that we have a president who likes to hear a lot of different views and that secretary kerry is in an amazing position to present his views. >> all right, the book is "prague winter" now out in paperback. >> by the empress of research. >> we could go on and on with things that my father has named. >> more "morning joe" in just a moment. great to see you. thank you for coming in. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. executor of efficiency.

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welcome back to "morning joe." it's time to talk about what we learned today. mika, what did you learn? >> i learned to the former secretary of state madeleine albright is the empress of research, according to my father. >> wrote a pretty darn great book. >> i learned chuck todd is like the mario andretti of nbc. every time he gets near joe biden's house, he slams on the accelerate. >> keep going. >> apparently a full solar eclipse in tennessee today. >> that's true. good point. >> they really should change that studio background. >> and madeleine albright, what did you learn today? >> as i listened, i learned that joe really does listen to other media. >> oh. >> i do.